The Renovated Hallway

New Wiring, Plaster, Flooring, Ceiling And Doors

Below are some of the before and after shots of our newly renovated hallway, in our apartment in Szeged, showcasing how much work and fine detail was put into its renovation.

When I was viewing the apartment I knew the hallway cupboards had to come out to make space for a coffee table, chairs and television as I wanted to convert it into a relaxation area for
guests, friends and potential future tenants. I decided it would have a tiled floor simply because it is also the entrance to the apartment.

The outdated hallway cupboards were removed for extra space

The old hallway cupboards were so outdated that I had to remove them. No one in their right mind could of lived in an apartment with those ugly monsters! They must of been at least 20 years old. And it was the same story with the floor tiles.

The TILES

The photos above do not show the true extent of how dirty the hallway floor tiles, and the floor tiles leading into the kitchen, were. The look whitish, but they could not be cleaned up to a good standard. Hence why I removed them. They were just as stubborn to remove as the bathroom and kitchen tiles.

The hallway tiles were as stubborn to remove as the kitchen and bathroom tiles

The entrance to the kitchen was also an eyesore as the bulky frame and outdated door just made the hallway look too small. What this hallway needed was light and space. The only positive thing to say here was that after removing the cupboards and kitchen doorway there were no floor tiles underneath them, saving me a removal job.

The CEILING

With the hallway floor tiles, cupboards and kitchen door frame removed I could then concentrate on the fake ceiling. Below, work has started on the fake ceiling that will hide the ugly pipe running through the hallway and into the bedroom, lounge and bathroom. Plaster board and plaster will hide the electricity cables.

The fake ceiling will hide the pipework coming from other rooms in the apartment

The old electricity meter was above the bathroom door, but with the new electricity meter I wanted it above the front door simply because all the electricity cables coming from the building itself and into the apartment come from the staircase/hallway outside my front door. This would make it was easier to just channel the wiring through the wall of the front door, hence why I now have a gap in the fake ceiling; to make way for the new wiring.

The PLASTER WORK

Before all the fake ceilings and plastering jobs were due to commence I was forced, due to lack of time, to do their preparation work myself; unbeknown to the workers. They should of done
this preparation work themselves of course, as it is a basic fundamental of their profession, but when you are lacking time you have to do certain jobs yourself; which I did not mind,
especially as it was for my own apartment. The downside of doing the preparation work myself was that the builders took advantage in terms of not doing any future preparation work
themselves because they assumed I would do it.

I know this for fact because when I was painting the left-side of the hallway the plaster work was coming off in my paint roller. A sign of not enough new plaster, but also a sign that
the wall had not been prepared properly, if at all, beforehand. When I confronted the plasterer he said "That is because you did not prepare the wall"....."the new plaster could not stick
to the wall properly", to which I replied "I know that"....." but it is your job to do the preparation work, not mine". Hence their downside when I asked them to strip the wall, prepare
it properly and then plaster it three layers thick; just to make sure it would be okay to paint on without problems.

I got the same plaster problems when painting the living room. About 5% of the plaster was coming off on my paint roller. I later found out that only one layer of plaster had been applied
to the existing (old) plastered walls. It turns out the plasterer had been told to do this by his boss, who probably assumed one layer would be okay because it was going on top of an
existing (old) layer.

Either way, the walls should of been plastered twice. The other rooms were plastered twice, apart from the problem hallway wall and living room walls. Luckily for them I knew how to
carefully paint the first two coats to ensure no plaster came away, which in turn ensured the success of the final third coat. This meant that once the walls and ceilings were finished
no more problems occurred.

The shame here is with the company boss who dictated shortcuts to his hard working plasterer. You cannot blame the plasterer for lack of preparation when the boss told him to ignore
preparation. In fact, it was the plasterer who helped the boss with the fake ceiling. After speaking with the plasterer he felt let down by his boss because he knew these small problems
where reflecting on his excellent plaster work. The kitchen for example was beautifully plastered with two layers of plaster. It could not be faulted.

It looks nice now, but it was fragile to paint with small bits of plaster coming off!

Note Well - Although I use the words plaster and plastering, in Hungarian they say glet and gletting. Glet is slightly different to plaster in terms of the way it is applied and its texture. Glet is more like a polyfilla substance. In the UK we tend to plaster a wall up to 1cm or 1 inch thick whereas in Hungary they tend to glet a wall up to 5mm only. So it acts more like a skimmer/smoother, hence why I say it is like a polyfilla.

The DOORS

With the bedroom and lounge doors I wanted them to lock, with a latch knob from the inside and a key from the outside, just in case I rent out or have some guests over who feel the need to lock their room for whatever reason(s). With the bathroom lock I went for the standard inside latch knob and standard outside slit (screwdriver open) lock. I also chose to have a mocha wood style to blend in with the beige hallway walls. The orange-tan lounge and light blue bedroom also blend well with the mocha.

The finished, clear space, hallway will have a coffee table, chairs and tv inside it

When planning your renovation you should consider having locks on the doors, especially if you are thinking of renting out more than one room to multiple people, as installing locks later can be more expensive. Locks also add security of course and piece of mind and privacy to individual tenants with their own room.

I had my doors custom-made by a company, as opposed to visiting the D.I.Y shop and calling out a locksmith and carpenter, so that my specifications were met. The price between custom-made and locksmith/carpenter is more or less the same (between 66,370 Ft and 70,000 Ft). The beauty of custom-made is that the locks, hinges etc are assembled and checked before leaving the factory. In my case the doors came from Budapest.

In CONCLUSION

The hallway was pretty straight forward to renovate once the wallpaper, water damage marks, old cupboards and old floor tiles were removed. I think the overall cost of the hallway, compared to what it would of cost in the UK, was very affordable; especially when you consider that I got the labor for free whereby at certain times I had three workers on a particular job. And there was not really too much I could of saved on in terms of buying the materials.

Note: The grand total below is estimated because the fake ceiling and plasterwork costs, for example, were for the whole apartment and the tiles were for the kitchen too.

Product(s) / Service(s)

HUF Price

GBP Price

Notes

Fake Ceiling / Plaster Work

130,000 Ft

£346.66

FREE LABOR - Plasterer Did Work For Free

Tiles Purchased

96,000 Ft

£256

Grout Purchased

14,000 Ft

£37.33

Tiles Pasted

44,000 Ft

£117.33

FREE LABOR - Tiler Did Work For Free

Paint And Other Materials

37,500 Ft

£100

3 New Doors Purchased And Fitted

199,110 Ft

£530.96

New Front Door Purchased And Fitted

65,000 Ft

£173.33

GRAND TOTAL

585,610 Ft

£1,561

Rough Estimate (more like £700-£800)

NOTE WELL - The reason why I got free labor from the electrician, tiler and plasterer was because they were in some way related to my friend, Tünde, or friends of those relations.
Furthermore, the labor prices shown on this web page are rough quotations of what a standard client might of paid. In other words, I asked the electrician etc what they would of normally
charged a client so that you have a rough idea of labor costs in Szeged. If you want to get a quote from them and/or hire them please e-mail me for their contact details.

Disclaimer: At the time of renovation, where 1 GBP (Great British Pound) was equal to 375 HUF (Hungarian Forint), the HUF and GBP prices and costs shown in this renovation section were 100% correct - GBP prices and costs were based on and calculated at an exchange rate of 1 GBP to 375 HUF. With exchange rates, prices and costs naturally being variable, you should therefore take the prices and costs shown throughout this website as guidance only.